The Nigerian militant group that is terrorizing the country’s north just pulled off one of its bloodiest attacks yet.

Islamic militants aligned with Boko Haram slaughtered hundreds of civilians in northern Nigeria on Monday, witnesses and government officials say, in a string of attacks that targeted at least four villages.

“We believed they came on a revenge mission,” one resident, Bulus Yashi, tells CNN. “It was a reprisal attack over the casualties Boko Haram suffered in the village in two previous attacks.”

“We are still trying to compile a toll of the dead as people on the ground are still counting the number of casualties,” Nigerian lawmaker Peter Biye said. Witnesses say at least 200 lost their lives, and its taken days to get the word out of the region as roads are dangerous and the militants have destroyed telecommunications towers in the region.

A Nigerian policeman stands guard by burned out cars and houses, following an attack by suspected Islamic extremists in Kawuri, Maiduguri, Nigeria, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2014.

The militants stormed the villages dressed as soldiers and riding ATVs, witnesses said, and armed with Kalashnikov assault weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, according to AFP.

The Nigerian military failed to stop the attack, the Associated Press says, even though it was warned a Boko Haram raid was “imminent.’

Boko Haram now commands large swaths of the region, hoisting their flags — which are black and feature white Islamic writing — over at least seven villages in a display of control, says Bye.

This file image made available from Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2012, taken from video posted by Boko Haram sympathizers shows the leader of the radical Islamist sect Imam Abubakar Shekau.

The group has been laying siege to the region for at least five years as part of a bloody campaign to establish Islamic rule in Nigeria, and rid the country of western education. Thousands have been killed in the conflict and nearly one million refugees have streamed into neighboring countries.

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